Alfredo Beltran Leyva Sentenced To Life In Prison For Leading An International Drug Trafficking Conspiracy

The U.S. Justice Department released the below information:

Alfredo Beltran Leyva, also known as Mochomo, one of the leaders of the Beltran Leyva Organization, a Mexican drug-trafficking cartel responsible for importing multi-ton quantities of cocaine and methamphetamine into the United States, was sentenced today to life in prison for his participation in an international narcotics trafficking conspiracy.

Acting Assistant Attorney General Kenneth A. Blanco of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, Assitant Director Stephen E. Richardson of the FBI’s Criminal Investigative Division, Special Agent in Charge James J. Hunt of the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) New York Division and Executive Associate Director Peter T. Edge of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) made the announcement.

“For well over a decade, the defendant commanded a major Mexican drug trafficking organization that imported ton-quantities of cocaine and methamphetamine into the United States and led a campaign of violence and fear that gripped communities across North America,” said Acting Assistant Attorney General Blanco. “Through close cooperation with our foreign counterparts, the United States brought this international drug-trafficker to justice, significantly disrupted the flow of narcotics into the United States and stemmed the tide of destruction wrought by this violent cartel.”

“Alfredo Beltran Leyva spent decades at the head of a criminal organization responsible for trafficking large amounts of cocaine and methamphetamine into the U.S.,” said Assistant Director Richardson. “Today’s sentencing marks an end to Alfredo Beltran Leyva's reign of terror, and demonstrates that the FBI and our law enforcement partners around the globe will aggressively pursue and bring justice to those individuals who use violence and intimidation to threaten our communities.”

“Alfredo Beltran Leyva is one of the ‘Goliaths’ of Mexican drug traffickers known for his savage business tactics and responsible for flooding the United States with illegal drugs,” said Special Agent in Charge Hunt. “This sentencing exemplifies law enforcement’s commitment to bringing justice to the victims of drug abuse through successful prosecutions of the highest echelon of drug traffickers.”

“Today’s sentencing dealt a major blow to the Beltran Leyva Organization by taking out one of its leaders. It is with tireless joint enforcement efforts like this one that we can remove drugs from America’s streets and make our communities that much safer,” said HSI Executive Associate Director Edge. “HSI and our law enforcement partners, both in the United States and around the world, will not waver in our resolve to dismantle and cripple violent drug organizations, and remove their leadership.”

Beltran Leyva, 46, was indicted on Aug. 24, 2012, for conspiracy to distribute cocaine and methamphetamine for importation into the United States. The defendant was extradited from Mexico to the United States on Nov. 15, 2014, and pleaded guilty on Feb. 23, 2016, before U.S. District Judge Richard J. Leon of the District of Columbia. Judge Leon imposed today’s sentence and ordered Beltran Leyva to forfeit $529,200,000.

In court, Beltran Leyva admitted that he was part of a conspiracy to import large quantities of drugs into the United States. At his plea hearing and during pre-trial conferences, the government proffered evidence that from the early 1990s until his indictment in August 2014, the defendant was a leader of the Beltran Leyva Organization, a global criminal enterprise responsible for importing multi-ton quantities of cocaine and methamphetamine into the United States. Beltran Leyva admitted that he and his organization obtained tonnage quantities of cocaine from South American suppliers, which the defendant and his organization helped finance and which were transported to Mexico via air, land and sea. Once the cocaine reached Mexico, the defendant’s organization transported it to key points in Mexico, including Culiacan, Sinaloa, which was also the central point for the collection of billions of dollars from drug trafficking proceeds in the United States. At sentencing, the government’s evidence showed that the organization used weapons and carried out acts of violence, including murders, kidnappings, tortures and violent collections of drug debts, in order to sustain the drug importation operation.

On May 30, 2008, the United States added the Beltran Leyva Organization to the Department of Treasury’s Office of Foreign Asset Control’s Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons list, pursuant to the Foreign Narcotics Kingpin Designation Act. On Aug. 20, 2009, the United States specifically designated Beltran Leyva as a specially-designated drug trafficker under the same act.

The FBI’s El Paso, Texas, Division led the investigation in partnership with the DEA’s New York Division and HSI’s Special Agent in Charge, New York office as part of the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force. Acting Deputy Chief Amanda Liskamm and Trial Attorney Adrian Rosales of the Criminal Division’s Narcotic and Dangerous Drugs Section and Assistant U.S. Attorneys Marcia M. Henry and Andrea Goldbarg of the Eastern District of New York prosecuted the case. The Criminal Division’s Office of International Affairs provided valuable assistance in the case.

What The Jim Webb Debacle In Annapolis Is Teaching the Military

I don't always agree with James Webb. I once went back and forth with him via email during the Iraq war over an interview I wanted to do with him (he opposed the war and I supported it), and he finally declined to be interviewed.

But I respect the highly decorated U.S. Marine combat officer who served in Vietnam and went on to become the Secretary of the Navy, a U.S. Senator and a presidential candidate. He is also a fine writer and wrote one of the best novels about Vietnam, Fields of Fire, as well as another fine novel about the U.S. military and American history, A Country Such As This.

So I thought that the protest over this great American patriot receiving an award at the U.S. Naval Academy was a disgrace. 

Aaron MacLean at the Free Beacon offers a piece on the controversy.

Imagine you are a young midshipman at the U.S. Naval Academy processing the news that Jim Webb—Annapolis class of '68, recipient of the Navy Cross, former senator and secretary of the Navy, former member of the Annapolis faculty, bestselling novelist and acclaimed journalist—has been forced by political pressure to decline an award for distinguished alumni at your school this week.

The most widely cited reason for his political toxicity is an article he wrote in 1979 (side note: almost forty years ago!) in Washingtonian Magazine entitled "Women Can't Fight." Never mind that he has apologized for both the vivid language of his youth and the ways in which the article made life difficult for women already in the service. ("Clearly, if I had been a more mature individual, there are things that I would not have said in that magazine article. To the extent that this article subjected women at the Academy or the armed forces to undue hardship, I remain profoundly sorry.") Never mind the fact that Webb was channeling the beliefs of the vast majority of his fellow infantrymen, if in somewhat impolitic language—or that even today, the vast majority of Marines of all grades oppose the inclusion of women in combat units. Never mind that in 1987, as secretary of the Navy, Webb opened a tremendous number of new positions in the service to women. Most of all, never mind that as of December 2015, combat units were all opened to women by order of then-Secretary of Defense Carter, overriding the objections of the Marine Corps (though not of the Army).

In other words, the proponents of including women in combat units have won. But, as the case of Webb shows, that's not enough. You have to salt the fields.

You can read the rest of the piece via the below link:

http://freebeacon.com/blog/what-the-jim-webb-debacle-in-annapolis-is-teaching-the-military/?utm_source=Freedom+Mail&utm_campaign=f56e5c3b47-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2017_03_31&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_b5e6e0 

My Crime Beat Column: My Q&A With Ralph Natale, The Former Boss Of The Philadelphia Cosa Nostra Organized Crime Family

On March 27^th my review of Last Don Standing: The Secret Life of Mob Boss Ralph Natale appeared in the Washington Times.

The book was written by Dan Pearson, the executive producer of the Discovery Channel’s I Married a Mobster, and Larry McShane, a crime reporter and author of  The Chin: The Life and Crimes of Mafia Boss Vincent Gigante. The book covers the life of Ralph Natale, the boss of the Philadelphia-South Jersey Cosa Nostra organized crime family in the 1990s, and the first mob boss to become a government witness.

               

As I wrote in the review, I grew up in South Philly, not far from where Natale was raised a generation earlier. I contacted him and we talked about his life and the book. I noted that he didn’t appear to be particularly remorseful or repentant in the book. I asked him if had any regrets about his past criminal life?

“I have regrets about one thing, I broke my marriage vows,” Natale replied. “That’s the only thing I regret in my life. When I was 12 years old, I was a hoodlum. I was a born killer, that’s what I did and why I rose to the top so easily. But I never touched an innocent man or a woman or a child. I just clipped the guys who were supposed to get clipped. And they went. It was a simple thing for me.”

Below is my interview with Ralph Natale:

Davis: Why did you write the book?

Natale: It was very simple. When I “went away,” the second time, I did 13 years. I told my friends to make sure every month that my wife has enough until I come home. Oh, yeah, yeah, they said. When I asked her every month, she said no, I said OK, maybe something happened. Then I said, OK, how about these punks?

Davis: That made you bitter?

Natale: When I first came home from the first bit - I did 16 on that because I didn’t want to be a witness - they were living in their mother’s homes and they were driving other people’s cars. Forty-five months later when they arrested me for a parole violation, they were now driving Mercedes, BMW’s and they bought their own homes. Forty-five months! Before that they didn’t know how to get out of their own way. This is all a matter of fact. Everybody in South Philly knows and everybody in the mob knows. And now when I go away and this thing happens, I said I want to see those punks. I got indicted for helping my son-in-law and his drug business, I leant him some money, and this and whatever. He got arrested with everybody else and my name came up. So I got indicted on this. Now this was the third time around. I was facing life. I would have gladly done it, gladly, because I did 16 when I really was in trouble. But they didn’t come up with a dime. And that’s why I wrote every word, and every part of it. You have to believe it because they never denied it. They couldn’t deny anything.

Davis: Did you have any difficulty testifying against your former criminal associates in court?

Natale: I saw them in the courtroom when I think did eleven or twelve days on the stand. In fact even the marshal said, we never seen nothing like it, you ripped the lawyers up. We never saw a man answer like you. I was telling the truth. It’s easy to tell the truth. The FBI agents when they arrested me in Florida, they said we’ll get you on the big one, I said you guys are crazy. It all came out later in the trial when I was a witness. That’s the reasons why I did this. Throughout the mob, every mob leader at that time could not believe it, but then they said we know why Ralphy did it, because these bastards kept everything for themselves and didn’t give me a dime. 

Davis: Can you briefly describe what it was like to be the boss of the Philadelphia-South Jersey Cosa Nostra family?

Natale: Well, first of all, I always loved the guy who ran it, Angelo Bruno. When I went to work under “Skinny Razor,” John DiTullio, I saw what it was like to be admired and respected by “men,” and to tell men what to do and they would do it. I loved the ways, the world, everything was in place. I like things in order. I don’t like any disorder. When it gets disordered you see what happens in the world, in politics, in everything. It was like being dead and then all at once I became alive when I became a boss. I loved every moment of it. There is nothing like it in this world. I once saw a movie, a great sports movie, The Hoosiers. Did you see it?      

Davis: Yes, good film, with Gene Hackman.

Natale: OK. When the woman in the movie was talking about her brother she said around here if a guy plays basketball, he’s treated like a God. Hackman said, listen, he told her, anybody, if he’s treated like a God for 15 seconds, then that’s well worth anything in the world. That’s true.    

Davis: That’s the way you felt when you were the boss?

Natale: Yeah, that’s the way I felt. To be a part of La Cosa Nostra, when things meant something, you had to at least make a kill on your own. In my time, I committed, I think I pled to eight of them when I had to plea. I love my peace, I love my family, I love whatever I do, but if it comes time, I’m still mobster Natale. That’s all I know. The reason I speak so plainly is because I want you to understand what men like me are like. We don’t look any different. I don’t act like a mobster, I never did.             

Davis: I’m half-Italian, I grew up and live in South Philly and I’ve covered organized crime for a good number of years. I know the Cosa Nostra culture.

Natale: The culture is this, if you can’t do it and then go home to sleep, then you shouldn’t do anything. I was brought up at 6^th and Wharton in South Philly. I was born and raised in that area. My mother family comes from there. My father’s family died early in their lives when they came from the other side. They got caught up in that flu epidemic. I was still see the same stores, the same houses and the same people. And I love every one of them with my heart.

Davis: How were things different from when you were the boss and, say, from when Angelo Bruno was the boss in the 1960’s and 1970’s?   

Natale: Well, when Ang was the boss, money was around. Gambling, and this and that, but when I became boss, we had to go out and make our money. There was a lot of punks around. It was tough. Two weeks after I came home I called one big meeting. I said I want everybody to go get these guys taking all the action and tell them to meet us. When we were through with this meeting at a banquet hall we all became partners with the guys that were there. That’s what I did. We started to make money.

Davis: Did you meet any resistance from other ethnic gangs, like the Russians or biker gangs?

Natale: Everybody else knew that I was home and they knew what kind of man I was on the street before and when I was in prison. Once I called them in and had something to say, they all knew I kept my word. And they had to keep their word. I wasn’t Superman. You could put two in my head. But so far, I’m OK. I’m here.

Davis: How different is today’s mob, as I guess you’re watching it from afar, and from your day and era?

Natale: They don’t keep the rules. The watch too many movies. They watch The Godfather, they watch Casino. I was with those people, I knew those people. It was a joke. And these guys want to walk and talk like that. It was not like it was when we were young. We had men on the street. The few men that are left are the men that did time with Scarfo. They all did their time like men and they all came home like men. I didn’t know them because I was much older than them and I was away, but I admired men who did their time and came home. They are the only men who are left in South Philadelphia.

        

Davis: Scarfo recently died in prison. What did you think of him and how he ran the crime family?

Natale: He destroyed it. Nicky Scarfo was a man who had a hole inside him. He had no soul, no heart. You know, he didn’t have one true friend? Not one. I knew him very well. Many years ago when we were working in Atlantic City I wanted to kill Nicky Scarfo. It came out. I asked Angelo Bruno. No, Ang said, his uncles are my friends, and he’s this, he’s that. I said he’s going to give us trouble. But Ang said, with half a smile, don’t do this. It can’t be done. He put all those guys, all men, in prison.

Davis: There is some question of who is the South Philly and South Jersey boss today. Do you know who it is?

Natale: There is no boss! There is no more mob there. They are not recognized anywhere in the country because of what they did and who they were. They don’t even know how to walk on Passyunk Avenue. The men who came home can and I wish them all well. It’s not like before.

Davis: Can you describe your homecoming when you became the boss?

Natale: When I came home the first thing I did was walk from Jefferson Hospital, where I arranged to have a hernia operation later, to South Philly. I wanted to see South Philly again. When I went down Ninth Street at the Italian Market, all the guys working behind the stands came and we hugged and kissed. They already had the word because the news media had me as the new boss. It was so warming for me. And then we stopped at the Villa de Roma and we had a little drink – it was in the afternoon – and then we went home. That’s what South Philly was to me. I lived my life pretty good in South Philadelphia. Walk up and down every street and find out how I treated my friends and other people that I barely knew, and then you’ll know what kind of man I was. Then you’ll understand me.

Davis: How difficult was it to become a government witness after a lifetime in Cosa Nostra?

Natale: It wasn’t difficult for me. I’m not going to cry like other people. I wanted to get those punks. When my wife and family had nothing and I gave those punks everything? It was so easy. Done and done.

Davis: If you look back in crime history, Cosa Nostra took pains to support the families of guys who went away to prison. This was key, along with a threat of death, that there is no record of any Cosa Nostra member becoming a government witnesses prior to Joe Valachi, and not many afterwards until much later, when greed, along with the RICO statute, changed all of that.

Natale: It was like that. When I was away at Lewisburg I got subpoenaed to appear before a Senate Investigation Committee On Organized Crime. This was in 1982 and I had the first three years of a 23-year sentence. When they took me there they told me if you give us the right answers you’ll have your sentence reduced and you’ll be home within three months from today. I said you got the wrong guy. There were just three guys there. There was Nicky Scarfo, who had just become the boss, and the old man from Chicago, Anthony "Joe Batters,” Accardo. and me. I was the only one in prison and I was in jeopardy of getting another sentence for perjury, for this, for that. I did what I had to do. It was on C-Span and I still got the clip. I didn’t say a word about anybody. I could have put in prison half of New York, half of Chicago and all of Philadelphia. And you know who went to jail? Me. And that’s the truth. That I’m proud of.

Davis: What do you think of Ron Privite, the man who wore an FBI wire, recorded you and testified against you?

Natale: Anybody who testifies against me was what he was. I have no ill feeling about anything or anybody. I look at him, and say, well, you know, he did what had he had to do to save his ass. That’s what kind of name he’s got and that’s it. I ain’t got time for hate. I intend to live to be a hundred, but if I die tomorrow, I don’t have any hate in my body for anybody that did anything against me.

Davis: Are you concerned about your personal safety? Is there an open contract on you?

Natale: Who’s going to come after me (laughs)? I’m still a man. I was always known as a dangerous, dangerous man. That’s all I can tell you.

Davis: There is that interesting story of “Harry the Hunchback” Riccobene, an elderly man, who took a couple of bullets but still managed to take the gun away from the hit man who was a young guy. Did you know him?

Natale: Let me tell you a story about Harry Riccobene. You’re the first guy I’m going to tell it to, a South Philly guy. When I was home and I was the boss, I was down at 8^th and Tasker, at Frankie’s bar and I had to see him about something. I ran into a couple of my old school chums from Bartlett Junior High and one of them came over and said can I speak to you? Yeah, what is it? He said he gets a call every week from a man who praises you and loves you. He said if I ever ran into you I should arrange for you to come to my home and talk on the phone to him. What’s his name, I asked? Harry Riccobene. Little Harry? I love him. You make the arrangements and we’ll get it done. I did go over the week after. That was a real man. You know what he told me? He was glad I got it. He said I deserved it more than anybody. I said thanks Harry. He said he was fine - he had a ton of money. You remember I love you, ever since I was a boy, I said, and he said he loved me too. He died at 93-years-old, I think.

Davis: He was a tough old guy.

Natale: Harry Riccobene was a notorious killer. He used to drive Skinny Razor around and they were the men that I knew and they watched me grow up. I loved and respected them with all my heart.

Davis: You write about Teamster boss Jimmy Hoffa in you book. Are you aware that Martin Scorsese is making a film about Frank Sheeran, the former Teamster and hit man who claimed to have murdered Hoffa as well as “Crazy Joe” Gallo in New York?

Natale: Let me tell you about Frank Sheeran. He’s nothing but a drunk and he imagines things. He begged for me to see him when I was home and I did. I went over to South Philly and I met him there. He was half-drunk and that was it. He said he killed Jimmy Hoffa. I know who killed Hoffa. I have a picture in the book with me and a few of the guys from Lewisburg and one of the guys in the photos was one of the three guys who killed Hoffa. His name was Tommy Andretta. His brother was with him and there was the other guy they killed in New York, Salvatore Briguglio. This was a hit squad from “Tony Pro” Provenzano, who was my dear friend. He was a capo. I get a little angry. You know how guys claim to killed Jimmy Hoffa? I think 15.

Davis: And he’s buried here, there and everywhere.

Natale: I just gave you the three guys. It will come out.

Davis: Why do you believe he was he murdered?

Natale: Because he wanted to come back and take over the union. I got a whole chapter in there. He asked me to help him and it explains it in the book. He was killed because he made the first major mistake in his life. If a man is a gambler, a drinker, a womanizer, he’s got other things to do when he’s retired, you know. Hoffa had only thing – the union. He loved it. He was a rich man but he wanted that union back. I met Hoffa and told him if Ang wants me to help you, fine but if not, I can’t serve two masters. Sorry. That was the last time I saw Jimmy Hoffa and then he was dead.

Davis: In your book you debunk the idea that Cosa Nostra was against drugs. You write that everybody sold drugs. But why did some bosses like Paul Castellano in New York prohibit them in such a strong way?

Natale: Listen to me. Let me break that fable. Every mob in New York, Chicago, Philly, always has a man who sells drugs. Everybody handles drugs. There was Joe Bonnano, who in the beginning said no drugs, no drugs, meanwhile he became the biggest rat in the world. You get the bosses money, and that’s it.

Davis: After Bonanno was exiled from New York to Arizona he was suspected of running a major heroin operation from Mexico.

Natale: Listen to me. There is no crime that cannot be done if you belong to the mob.

Davis: You spent a good many years in prison and your descriptions of prison life in the book seem almost nostalgic. Was prison life for you like the scenes from the movie Goodfellas? Did you live fairly well inside?

Natale: That’s another thing they overdid. It’s all bullshit. You go to prison and you got time to do. You do it and it’s hard. Some guys can do it and some guys can’t. I did almost 30 years in prison. So I know what prison is about.

Davis: Are there plans to make a film from your book?

Natale: We’re ready to make one. Dan Pearson will be leaving in a couple of weeks to go to Hollywood and sit down and talk turkey with some real big people. You’ll hear about it in two or three weeks. We’re going to make a beautiful movie.

Davis: Are they going to shoot the film in South Philly? I hope they don’t film it in Pittsburgh or Scranton like they did the film 10^th and Wolf. I grew up near 10^th and Wolf.

Natale: It is going to be filmed in South Philly and Jersey.

Davis: Who was the most impressive man you came across?

Natale: I would have to say that the most impressive man I ever been around was John DiTullio, Skinny Razor. He was the most feared man in the United States, you know. He was number one. And I give you the Chicago guy, Anthony Accardo. When I met him, I thought I was meeting God.

Davis: What is your life like now?

Natale: I love my family. I enjoy my wife and all my children. I had five children and they had ten children and now we have 12 great-grandchildren. Can you image that? They are all beautiful and smart and entertaining. They are great looking people.  

Davis: Thanks for talking to me.

Note: You can read my Washington Times review of Last Don Standing via the below link:

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2017/mar/27/book-review-last-don-standing-the-secret-life-of-m/         

T2: Trainspotting: A Worthy Sequel

I’m a huge fan of the film Trainspotting. I’ve seen the somewhat demented but brilliant film several times and I look forward to seeing the sequel.

Thomas S. Hobbs at National Review Online offers a review of the new film.

In one of the many reunion scenes in T2: Trainspotting, the sequel to the 1996 indie hit film Trainspotting, Mark Renton (Ewan McGregor) tells his old friend Simon, a.k.a. Sick Boy (Jonny Lee Miller), that after a heart attack, he had a stent inserted that will ensure that he lives 30 more years. He then laments his longevity. He would know what to do with two or three years, but he has no idea what to do with 30. “I’m 46 years old,” he moans, “and I’m f****d!”

As with all the major characters in the Trainspotting universe, Renton’s experience is framed by the emptiness of time in a world where meaning has been reduced to arbitrary consumer choice, a world in which, as Renton boldly proclaimed in his famous “choose life” speech in the original, it makes as much sense to be on heroin as not to.

Although it has been 20 years since the original, the characters, dialogue, and action feel fresh and smart. With another terrific soundtrack, and using the same source material (an Irvine Welsh novel), writer John Hodge and director Danny Boyle have achieved the rare feat of creating a film that satisfies the sequel viewer’s desire for both nostalgia and novelty.

You can read the rest of the review via the below link:

http://www.nationalreview.com/article/446321/trainspotting-sequel-drugs-violence-aimlessness 

My Washington Times Review Of Jack And Norman

The Washington Times published my review of Jerome Loving’s Jack and Norman today.

I’ve not read “In the Belly of the Beast,” Jack Henry Abbott’s book about his prison experiences and his half-baked commentary on Marxism and Communism, and I don’t plan to. But I have read Norman Mailer’s “The Executioner’s Song,” which was one of the few books by Norman Mailer that I liked.

Jerome Loving’s “Jack and Norman” is a book about the two books and the relationship between the two authors; Abbott, a convicted criminal, and Norman Mailer, a celebrated author who pursued controversy and greatness.

“This is the story of the author and the apprentice. It is the story of literary influence and tragedy,” writes Mr. Loving in the introduction to the book. “It is the story of a state-raised convict, the “by-blow,” as Melville says of another society’s orphans in “Billy Budd,” a novel that comes into play in our story; of an army drunk; and a Eurasian prostitute. It is the story of a writer who set out all his life to write the Great American Novel and stumbled into its greatness as essentially a gifted journalist whose “true life novel” transcends the quotidian world of facts. Finally, it is the story of incarceration in America.”

This is certainly a lot of ground to cover in one book, but Mr. Loving largely succeeds.

Mr. Mailer was instrumental in getting Abbott, a check forger, bank robber and violent inmate, paroled from prison in 1981. He praised Abbott’s writing ability and told prison officials that he planned to hire him as his literary assistant. Abbott’s prison book was about to be published and he became a free man again with money and celebrity advocates. Six weeks after his release, Abbott and two women went to a late-hour restaurant after a publisher’s party in Abbott’s honor. Abbott got into an argument with Richard Adan, the restaurant’s manager, and the two went outside to an alley where Abbott stabbed the manager to death. Abbott then fled the scene and became a fugitive.

You can read the rest of the review via the below link:

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2017/apr/2/book-review-jack-and-norman-a-state-raised-convict/ 

On This Day In History Mob Boss John Gotti Was Convicted Of Murder

As History.com note, on this day in 1992 John Gotti, boss of the New York Gambino Cosa Nostra crime family, was convicted of murder.

You can read about Gotti and the trial via the below link:

http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/mob-boss-john-gotti-convicted-of-murder?cmpid=email-hist-tdih-2017-0402-04022017&om_rid=de5e4076c942a595dbda53f758321d197499484f6d117f61b6ac5c08e0d6f0aa&om_mid=166512913&kx_EmailCampaignID=10779&kx_EmailCampaignName=email-hist-tdih-2017-0402-04022017&kx_EmailRecipientID=de5e4076c942a595dbda53f758321d197499484f6d117f61b6ac5c08e0d6f0aa  

On This Day In History April Fools Tradition Popularized

As History.com notes, on this day in 1700 English pranksters began popularizing the annual tradition of April Fools' Day by playing practical jokes on each other.

You can read about the beginnings of April Fools' Day via the below link:

http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/april-fools-tradition-popularized?cmpid=email-hist-tdih-2017-0401-04012017&om_rid=de5e4076c942a595dbda53f758321d197499484f6d117f61b6ac5c08e0d6f0aa&om_mid=166317294&kx_EmailCampaignID=10776&kx_EmailCampaignName=email-hist-tdih-2017-0401-04012017&kx_EmailRecipientID=de5e4076c942a595dbda53f758321d197499484f6d117f61b6ac5c08e0d6f0aa

Note: On April Fools' Day many years ago I took a beautiful girl out on our first date. I married her a couple of years later and we are still together.